Best starter phone for GPS tracking?

My (autistic, level 1) kid is getting to the age when she should have a phone. We’ll do some content / social media restrictions, have it off at some times, etc.

My bigger concern is GPS tracking - I’d like the BEST option out there for that. We live in a safe area and she’d like to take walks independently. In addition, it will take her time to build the habit of seeing and responding to our texts because of the way her brain works. (Currently she can message us on her tablet but typically won’t reply because she doesn’t understand the expectations of back-and-forth messaging. We’ve just started working with her on it!) For these reasons, reliable and accurate GPS is the most critical feature for us.

Does anyone have advice?